Mike Greenlar / The Post-StandardA father cries out as his son is rescued by Syracuse firefighters from an upstairs back window during a fire at their home at 318 N. Beech St. Sunday night.

Update: Fire officials have identified the man and son who were rescued from their burning North Side home Sunday night, and the cause of the fire.

They are Thomas Martell, 48, and his son, Thomas "T.J." Martell, 24. Heffernan said the fire was started in the front room of the home by a carelessly tossed cigarette. Thomas Martell was smoking and playing video poker, while T.J. Martell, who is disabled, was sleeping upstairs. The father went upstairs for a minute, and when he came back downstairs, the front of the house was engulfed in flames, Heffernan said.

The father went upstairs, woke up the son, and got him to the porch roof where the two were rescued by firefighters. T.J. Martell was taken University Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Heffernan said there are usually six people in the home at 318 N. Beech St., but Martell's wife, daughter, and the daughter's two children left earlier in the evening following a verbal dispute with Martell.

Earlier: A man and his son climbed out of their burning North Side home and onto a porch roof until Syracuse firefighters saved them late Sunday night.

The teen was taken to the hospital because of the 16-degree temperatures he was exposed to while waiting to be rescued, said Deputy Chief Jeff Daly. The father refused treatment. Their names were not released.

The fire at 318 N. Beech St. was called in just after 11 p.m., Daly said.

John Spara, a neighbor, called 911. He was walking down the street and saw the flames shooting out of the windows. He tried to get up on the front porch, but the windows were shattering from the heat.

"I was worried about the kids," Spara said. The 911 dispatcher told him told wait for help. A swingset and playhouse sat next to the charred house.

Usually, a family of six lives there. But several of the children were at a relative's home for the evening. At first, Daly said, firefighters didn't know that the children were not in the home, so they searched the two-story gray house looking for them.

The rescue of the father and son became complicated when the teen, who might have been disabled, did not want to put on his shoes. He was frightened of coming down the ladder, Daly said. And his father would not leave the boy on the roof.

So firefighters used a basket to lower the teen off the roof. Then the paramedics put him on a stretcher, covered him with a sheet, and ran with him through the cold to an ambulance. His father ran after them. Other family members, who were not home at the time of fire, cried as they saw the stretcher go by.

Daly said the entire two-story house was heavily damaged by fire, water and smoke. The fire appeared to have started in the first floor. The cause was still being investigated.